From Lexicanum

The Imperial Aircraft are controlled and deployed by the Imperial Navy rather than the Imperial Guard. There is a wide variety of type, including fighers, bombers and landing vehicles. They are generally less well armed and armoured than Space Marine vehicles.

Contents 1 Imperial Navy Aircraft 1.1 Thunderbolt 1.2 Lightning 1.3 Lightning Strike 1.4 Valkyrie 1.5 Vulture Gunship 1.6 Marauder 1.7 Marauder Destroyer 1.8 Arvus Lighter 1.9 Aquila Lander 2 Space Marine Craft 2.1 Stormbirds 2.2 Thunderhawks 2.2.1 Thunderhawk Transporter 2.2.2 Thunderhawk Gunship 3 Drop Pods 3.1 Drop Pod 3.2 Dreadnought Drop Pod 3.3 Deathwind Drop Pod 3.4 Eagle shuttle

Imperial Navy Aircraft

Thunderbolt

The Thunderbolt heavy fighter is one of the three main types of fighter aircraft employed by the Imperium of Man. Like the Lightning fighter it is primarily designed as an atmospheric fighter craft, rather than a star fighter like the Fury interceptor. The Imperium typically employs Thunderbolts as air superiority fighters and Lightnings as reconnaissance aircraft, interceptors, and escort fighters. As an air superiority craft the Thunderbolt is better armed and armoured than the Lightning, but slower. The Thunderbolt's production patterns are present on most of the Imperium's industrial worlds. Unusually for the heavily disorganized Imperium of Man the design is universally standardized, without the vast proliferation of slightly divergent variants and patterns common throughout much of the Imperium's technological base (and the undoubtedly nightmarish logistical complications they entail). The Thunderbolt is a very reliable machine, with individual aircraft commonly remaining in service for more than a century.

The Thunderbolt is classified as a heavy fighter or fighter-bomber and can be launched without a runway using a ramp catapult. It is armed with two synchronized laser cannons, two autocannons, and either guided missiles or unguided rockets. It can also carry a small quantity of light bombs. It is equipped with a vectored thrust system for increased manoeuvrability.

Lightning

The Lightning is mainly used for establishing air superiority or reconnaissance over the battlefield due to its improved manoeuvrability over the Thunderbolt. It comes with 2 Lascannons and an optional centre mounted Autocannon or 2 centre and 4 wing mounted Hellstrike Missiles to turn it into an effective ground attack aircraft.

Lightning Strike

The Lightning Strike is a variant of the Lightning.

Valkyrie

The Valkyrie can transport twelve Imperial Stormtroopers into battle and give supporting fire with weapons mounted on the nose, wings and in the cargo doors.

Vulture Gunship

The Vulture is a variant of the Valkyrie designed solely for fire power instead of transport capacity. It is armed with a nose-mounted Heavy Bolter and a large variety of missiles, cannons, rockets and bombs on wing-mounted hard points

Marauder

Marauder Bombers are huge aircraft, capable of carrying two thousand kilograms of ordnance. Each Marauder possesses a massive bomb bay, along with a pair of lascannons and two pairs of heavy bolters for defence against enemy fighters. Marauders were the Imperial Navy's original space-borne bomber craft before their replacement by the equally large, but more advanced and heavily armed, Starhawk bomber class. The Marauder is also equipped with vector-thrust.

Marauder Destroyer

The Marauder Destroyer is similar in design to the Marauder but modified for low, night flights during the Third War for Armageddon when Ork dominance in the skies forced them to use new tactics. They also have a new armament.

Arvus Lighter

The Arvus Lighter is s small lander sometimes used transporting cargo, but in rare cases used as an airborne alternative to the Chimera.

Aquila Lander

The Aquila Lander is a small lander sometimes used for transporting important personnel.

Space Marine Craft

Stormbirds

The Stormbirds were used during the Great Crusade by the Space Marine Legions until the improved Thunderhawks largely replaced them. It is know that they were built in Terra by the Yndonesic Bloc for the use against the Panpacific tribes during the Unification Wars. As they were replaced by the smaller Thunderhawks the Luna Wolves kept a large number of Stormbirds.

Thunderhawks The Thunderhawk is a heavily armoured space and atmosphere aircraft designed to be the ultimate Space Marine aircraft, providing air support/transport for the brothers of the chapter. Only available to the Space Marine Chapters (and the Traitor Legions since the original design has been known since the Great Crusade) the Thunderhawk performs various duties for them: during high level space battles they act as assault/attack ships for high speed attacks toward enemy battleships or transport for boarding squads. Otherwise they are used as drop ships for planetary assaults or ground bombers for close air support and heavy bombardment missions. Despite is bulky design, the Thunderhawk is a condensate of technology including many of the elements used in Land Raiders (Machine Spirit, remote targeting surveyors, long range transmitters, jamming devices and sensors as well as a Flare Launcher) however the ship foregoes speed and manoeuvrability for armament and heavy armour - said to be a 240mm conventional steel equivalent. This allows them to perform perfectly their task of landing rapidly and disembarking their cargo of troops. The Thunderhawk is well loved and respected by the Imperial forces for is ability to endure an amazing amount of damage and still keep flying. A Thunderhawk is especially resistant to fire/heat based weapon due to is ceramite shield design to resist the heat of multiple atmospheric entries. Thunderhawk Transporter The Thunderhawk Transporter is a transport variant of the Thunderhawk Gunship and is used for ground vehicle deployment with less weaponry (only twin linked Heavy Bolters) as a trade-off for 2 additional motors. Specialised variants are not unheard of, especially for high level Inquisitors, Chapter Masters or great heroes of the Imperium. As some Chapters do not possess the industrial equipment or manpower, Thunderhawks are frequently built on Forge Worlds. Even though most of the Chapters use their own facilities they make special efforts to ensure the security of the high level technology needed for the construction of the gunships. Thunderhawk Gunship The standard pattern Thunderhawk Gunship' (also known as the Thunderhawk Cruiser) has 3 motors (RX 9200 "Mars" pattern turbofans fuelled by the onboard Fusion Reactor). It is able to carry 30 Space Marines or half this number of Terminators/Jump Pack equipped Space Marines. It can also carry up to one Dreadnought (with 25 space marines) or 7 individual Bikers. The ships's weaponry includes 4 twin-linked Heavy Bolters (2 turrets mounted on front wingspans and 2 turrets on the wings), a twin linked Lascannon and a Turbo Laser (even if some Chapters prefer a Battle Cannon). It can also carry up to six Hellstrike Missiles, which for some rare missions can be replaced with Heavy Bombs. The crew consist of 4 specially trained Space Marines.

Drop Pods

Drop Pod Drop Pods are used by Space Marines for orbital insertion and are one-way rides. Once launched, they plummet through the atmosphere until retro jets fire to slow their descent. The Space Marines are then released into the heart of the battle. Dreadnought Drop Pod Dreadnought Drop Pods carry a single Dreadnought instead of a squad of Space Marines. This tied with several other landings can cause a deadly saturation of Space Marines at a certain point, drawing in more and more enemies and taking them away from other sectors. Deathwind Drop Pod Deathwind Drop Pods don't carry troops but have weapons systems installed to strafe the enemy with high levels of fire once they have landed and opened. They can be armed with either Missile Launchers or Assault Cannons.

Eagle shuttle

Eagle shuttles are transport shuttles of the Adeptus Arbites used to transport squads of Arbitrators to the other sides of worlds and up into orbit to dock with waiting Adeptus Arbites strike cruisers. Some of these shuttles were used during the evacuation of Belatis during the Gothic War.

• Imperial Aircraft Upgrades
• Imperial Navy Wings
• Named Imperial Aircraft